It pokes some gentle—okay, maybe not so gentle—fun at the sometimes-different perceptions that partners and marketing staff have about the value of PR opportunities. While the video focuses (to the chagrin of the animated marketer) on the Best Lawyers awards program, this perception gulf can also occur with regard to the generation of news stories. Some partners can overestimate the news value of their engagements, while others underestimate the level of media coverage their work might attract.
Enter a recent National Law Review article, “Public Relations Skills Boost Law Firms,” which contains a nice primer on what makes stories “newsworthy.” While none of the content will be new to veteran PR pros, it’s a good reminder of the elements that make reporters sit up and take notice of a story. And thus it makes good content to share with partners looking to understand the media better.
The list captures nicely the elements that can elevate a pitch from the email trash bin to the pages of the paper.
The article identifies several elements that enhance the “newsworthiness” of an event or issue—which, in the case of a law firm, will often be a transaction, litigation victory, or trending legal issue. Those elements include proximity, prominence, and timeliness. As NLR points out, proximity can mean physical proximity—something going on in your city —or subject-matter proximity. An issue affecting the auto industry, for instance, will always play well in Detroit, regardless of where the story originates. One of John Hellerman’s previous presentations included thoughts on “what is news,” which contains many of these same thoughts.
Other important factors the NLR points out are a story’s significance (the number of people it affects and/or the amount of money at stake), whether the subject is new or unusual (reporters always like fresh material), a human interest component (does it put a face on an abstract issue), the presence of conflict (which makes stories more dramatic and involving), does it play on a trend, and whether it has a strong visual component (for possible video, photos, or graphics).
The list captures nicely the elements that can elevate a pitch from the email trash bin to the pages of the paper, and thus provide good background for professionals like attorneys, accountants, and bankers. But they should not assume that their stories won’t get covered if they can’t immediately tick off several of the factors identified above. As communications professionals, part of the value we add is the ability to take what may seem like a mundane event and translate it to the media in a way that allows them to see its hidden significance, the underlying conflict, or other elements that make it worth covering. That’s the art of the pitch, and that’s a subject for a different blog post.